The one who loves you hits you. The one who hits you loves you. The one who loves you hurts you.This is a piece about relationships, unfortunately.(We can’t get away from them.)

One woman, one chair, one microphone. And a chair opposite her, for you.In an intimate conversation, she lays her cards on the table: talk to her, and she might (really) slap you.Playing on the anticipation of what happens when a theatre audience talks back, this piece threads together live audience encounters with funny and frightening stories of loneliness, domestic violence, authority, gender, and sensuality.

This is an encounter rather than a spectacle. Seated in the round, the audience is a group witness. The performer waits, for you. You are invited to a series of intimate one-to-one conversations in playfulness, dancing, sadness, silence… and a collective journey to confront fear, violence, love and a moment of real human connection.

"a perfect mirror to the hopeless shortcomings of our present social condition."- Theatrestück"Power is a play, and there is a hierarchy that needs to be dismantled, which may take longer than our lifetime. However, through interaction and performance, Talk to me and I slap you gives us room for the possibility of equality."- Chloe Chotrani, ArtsEquator

"The strength of Talk to me and I slap you lies in its interplay between hope and fear; it is tender, disturbing and so very human."-Patricia Tobin, Fivelines

"Serani is a master of manipulation, making the audience members the focus of this performance...It feels like one of those rare occasions of an unexpected outpour of love for a stranger."- Ezekiel Oliveira, Fivelines

About the artists:

Gabriela is a dance artist originally from Chile. Her powerfully fluid physicality and charismatic presence have featured in tours with UK companies BalletLORENT, Experiential Dance Company, and Lizzie Klotz Company, as well as the creation of performances with Paolo Mangiola (Italy) and Joanna Kalm (Estonia). Her choreographic collaborations have been presented at the International Festival of Glasgow (with Nerea Gurrutxaga), and at the FAKI festival of alternative theatre in Zagreb (with Chan Sze-Wei). She holds a BA in Contemporary Dance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire (UK), a postgraduate diploma from London Contemporary Dance School, is a graduate of ‘The Dancers’ Course’ by BalletBoyz UK, and will be commencing a Master in Cultural Studies and Arts Management in 2018. A longtime practitioner and teacher of Flying Low/Passing Through dance technique, she is certified to teach by founder David Zambrano. In 2017 she was the Artistic director of Estudio De Danza Francisca Garcia in Santiago.

Sze stepped into a dance class for a university P.E. requirement, and hasn’t stopped dancing since. Since training at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and the London Contemporary Dance School she has created and performed as an independent artist. Her unique interdisciplinary vision emphasises the intimate and sensorial, connecting the threads of the body with social issues, identity and gender. She blends conceptual, interactive, improvisatory and cross-cultural approaches for theatres, public spaces, video installation and film. Her choreographic work has been shown in Singapore, the UK, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Croatia and Laos, as well as dance film festivals in the USA and Brazil. She has been selected for support by the Substation (Open Call 2013), Dance Nucleus (ELEMENT artist 2017), and FAKI Festival of Alternative Theatre (residency in Zagreb, 2016). She is a passionate advocate for the rights and sustainable careers of dancers in Singapore, and the development of artistic networks and exchange in Southeast Asia.